“I would dearly love for parents who actually give a damn about their kids education to SEE some of the papers I have graded. The work is elementary level, yet the spelling, grammar and sentence construction is appalling; there is not the slightest grasp of even the simplest concepts and no show of any interest at all.”
Ahhh. I think you’re operating from a faulty premise. The education is not the issue for many if not most of the parents; it’s the access to tax-subsidized daycare.
You seem to be an intelligent, concerned teacher. Have you ever considered doing something else, like tutoring?
In my experience, it is YOU who are operating from the faulty premise.
Are there parents such as you describe? Of course. Are they the "many if not most of the parents?" Not in my current experience.
It is all going to depend upon the local district. I specifically moved from a district where your premise was much less faulty, to one where your premise is very much faulty. Parent/Teacher "conferences" have been known to be held in the frozen food aisle of the local supermarket or the checkout line of WalMart. Heck, I even had an impromtu one at a local town festival.
I’m just beginning this little foray into academia as a certified teacher. After 32 years in medicine, I thought teaching would be a logical “next step”since I did it so often in a hospital setting and loved it. I see the public schools as “entry level”. What I have seen in the past 5 years gives me nightmares- about our education system, our next generation of potential “leaders” and a MASSIVE headache!
Since I’ve spent so many years in the university setting, I suppose that is where I will end up. A nice little private school would be the most wonderful (sigh), but THOSE jobs are snatched up faster than fried chicken by the best teachers. It must be wonderful to be in a school where the parents actually have an incentive to control their kids...